PI

• Prof. Thandi Puoane
• Dr Lungiswa Tsolekile

Team Members

• Mr. Muhali Mulalo Kenneth
• Ms Mariam Hassen
• Ms Cynthia Paka
• Associate Prof. Hanani Tabana
• Smart Mabweazara

And Fieldstaff:

• Asiphe Ketelo
• Rivalani Derrick Chauke

Sivile Senza: Adapting the Diabetes Prevention Programme for a developing world context

The overall purpose of the project is to adapt the Diabetes Prevention Programme (DPP) for delivery in a developing world setting and to evaluate its feasibility and effectiveness in an urban community in South Africa.

Project period

01 March 2016 – 28 February 2022

Project Summary

The overall purpose of the Sivile Senza Lifestyle Africa project is to adapt the Diabetes Prevention Programme (DPP) – a lifestyle modification intervention used in many countries – for delivery in a developing world setting and to evaluate its feasibility and effectiveness in an urban community in South Africa.

The project’s official launch in 2018 followed an initial phase in 2017 during which materials were adapted for local use through collaborative work with the Children’s Mercy Hospital (USA), the University of Cape Town and the South African Christian Leadership Association Health Project (SACLA). A significant adaptation was to shift the mode of delivery to support groups, known as health clubs, run by community health workers (CHWs).

Sivile Senza – meaning ‘We have heard, now we can do’ –the project undertook a randomised trial with about 60 existing health clubs, taking baseline measurements and starting the intervention. Follow up data from the first group of ‘intervention’ clubs, along with baseline data for the control group of clubs, were collected to assess the effect of the intervention.

Funder

• The National Institutes of Health (NIH) funds the project through the Children’s Mercy Hospital.

Partners and Collaborators

• The National Institutes of Health (NIH) funds the project through the Children’s Mercy Hospital.